Breaking the Pictures Barrier: Why Television Research Began in 1877 (and why no one knows it)

Recorded January 12, 2017 at the SMPTE Philadelphia Section meeting, QVC, West Chester, PA.

Prior to 1877, there was no hint of a television camera — not even in science fiction or fantasy. In 1877, eight people, in five countries on both sides of the Atlantic, began working on television systems, and there has not been a year since without television research (though the word “television,” itself, wasn’t coined until 1900). Why the “pictures barrier” between 1876 and 1877? How did it get broken? Why don’t television history books discuss it? After extensive research, Mark Schubin thinks he knows the answers.

Since delivering this talk, Mark Schubin has discovered another member of “the class of 1877” (slide 43), Julijan Ochorowicz of Poland, who also referenced the Siemens artificial eye (slide 87). An expanded and updated set of slides (from the presentation to the SMPTE New York section on January 24) is available here.